What is the point of appliance insurance!

Jacqui_Anderson-Jane

I never usually take out appliance insurance, but decided that it would be good to have it on my washing machine. As a working mother (nurse) I have the usual laundry plus uniforms, and cannot do without it!
The said machine malfunctioned on 15th Aug, so I contacted the company('world leaders in appliance insurance'?). I was given the number of the repair company to contact- another major player in the household appliance industry, there was the usual protracted rigmarole of selecting options on the automated answering system, after 10 mins I finally got to speak to someone. I was told the engineer would be with me on 22nd of Aug! I said that cannot be right, I have insurance, I pay £96 per annum, to get a prompt service and repair, but that was the earliest date she could give me. I phoned the insurance company back to complain, but customer service was closed, I was assured the message would be passed on and I would recieve a phone call within 48hours-I am still waiting. I decided to wait for the engineers visit, get the machine repaired and cancel the insurance. The engineer came, diagnosed the problem, said it was a common fault with this particular machine (I had given a detailed description of fault so was surprised he hadn't come prepared with the affected part) - the part had to be ordered and he would have to come back on Wed 24th..i expressed my dissatisfaction with having to wait a further 2 days. The engineer was apologetic, but said that he was embarrassed at the service the company was providing, and that he was getting complaints constantly, from people hacked off with the long waits for repairs.
Needless to say, when the repair company phoned last night to say the visit would be on the 31st Aug, I hit the roof! At first I told her she was mistaken and that the engineer was coming tomorrow- but no, because the part had to be ordered, you go to the back of the queue again. I am absolutely insensed that I have paid for this extended warranty,expecting the repair to be atleast within the week, if not sooner. I could have saved the premiums and bought a new machine and had it working the next day.

I have placed a written complaint, and am still waiting for a reply to that. I am stressed to the max trying to sort this out, and am outraged at the misleading advertising of this major company -'24 hour advise and service'. I will never take out extended warranty, appliance insurance again, and would never encourage others to do so.

I have not named the companies involved, but would happily do so, if this is allowed!:eek:

torbrex

might have been better if you had asked this on the insurance board.


ETA

or even the vent board

surreysaver

Sounds like the sort of service people get from the NHS.

nuttybabe

i was told they were going to 'send one on a spaceship the next day' when i complained a month was too long to wait for a new washing machine which was still in its guarantee (less than a year old). i phoned back, spoke to someone else, sounded upset, got it the following week! and an apology from the first guy!

i wont take out an extended warrantly cos i think they are expensive for what they are. But my mate has and has used it alot so its worth it to her. But they do seem to get hers fixed within a week. i was lucky to get anyone come out to look at it within a week with my washing machine.

Jacqui_Anderson-Jane

surreysaver wrote: »

Sounds like the sort of service people get from the NHS.

Cannot disagree with that! Personally worked in private sector for 30 years were time is money and is therefore much more efficient. I have to say that there is a majority of dedicated and hardworking healthcare workers in the NHS, there are also too many middle managers.

Jacqui_Anderson-Jane

The worrying conclusion to the washing machine saga! Finally spoke to someone in the response team at D&G, who basically said they had no control over the length of time that Comet took to do a repair, abit disconcerting really, as this is who they, as the warranty provider, sub-contract repairs too ! If I was running this company, professing to be a leader in the business world, I would certainly be setting timescales for repairs (which would be certainly less than the 17 days I was expected to wait!). This representative of the response team (by the way, I had to contact her as she never returned my calls) suggested I source a local engineer and they would recompense the invoice. I contacted a local engineer who came to the house at 7pm that evening, had a quick but thorough look at the machine, said the motor was fine (the comet engineer had diagnosed this as the problem and the further delay was caused by having to order it) -the filter/pump was the problem. This was replaced, 15 minutes later the washer was back in working order, at a cost of £48 (would have been £28 if during normal working hours! I was desparate having had no washer for 11 days) So there is quite obviously lessons to be learned, the first being not to bother with warranty insurance, the very last thing it gave me was peace of mind! Secondly D&G need to seriously look at the service Comet is providing. The third one is the most worrying, re the 'motor ' problem that wasn't.....seem to recall similar scenario's on 'Rogue Traders' or maybe I am being unkind and its a 'training issue' whatever it needs investigating! I am just ecstatic that the washer is working! Sad or what!!!

Fury_2

surreysaver wrote: »

Sounds like the sort of service people get from the NHS.

haha good come back! Very true though, the worst service I have experienced first hand is the NHS, and that was by one hell of a considerable margin!!!!

I'm not a fan at all of these waranties, the cost of covering everything is considerable and usually works out cheaper to save the money and replace with new.

The only thing I have cover on is the fileservers I look after, and these have 24 hour, 3 hour response (with parts) cover.

System

I scrapped my appliance insurance with D&G after they failed to send me the renewal documentation but increased the Direct Debit.
They cancelled the insurance and refunded all the premiums I had paid since I had never claimed (13 months worth of premiums refunded:))

I now save £10 per month into a good interest paying bank account, this account is my emergency fund to cover the cost of repairs and/or replacement of appliances if / when needed.

System

When you consider the number of appliances we have now, it's rare for more than one to break down at the same time. So save the insurance money and self-insure. Don't think of my washing machine, my dishwasher, my drier, my TV, my CD player, etc, just think of my 10 appliances, most of which work nearly all the time.
If one fails, repair it or get another.

smitchy73

I had a similar experience recently with D & G, for my american fridge/freezer, first of all I had to wait a week for an engineer, then he was here for 5 minutes said it needed, this, this, this and this and would order them, only takes a couple of days and we'll be in touch, this was on the Tuesday, by Friday, heard nothing so phoned them, they told me that they had to get authorisation from D & G to order which delayed the process by another couple of days, the following Friday, now one two and a half weeks since logging call, the engineers called to ask if the fridge had been defrosted fully as they would be out later in the day, and I said of course not no one told me you were coming. The guy said he'd check with the engineer and get back to me in the afternoon, he didn't do this so on the Monday morning(3 weeks bar a day) I phoned again only to be told he couldn't come the following day as he was full and it would be the following Tuesday(4 weeks).
Incensed by this I contact and complained to D & G who were all apologetic etc and said that seen as it had been going on so long they would authorise the repair, but seen as the engineers had the parts already it was best to try to get the repair done first, and if that failed we'd get a replacement.
The engineer finally came, fitted the parts, and left, didn't plug it in to test, just left, so I plugged it in, left it to cool, and low and behold the repair failed it took 18 hours for the fridge to drop 3 degrees in temp, so got on the phone again to D & G, and they initiated the replacement, where they told me I had to get the engineers to come back out and class it as written off, when I phoned the engineers for this they told me it would be over another week before he could come back, at this point I was cursing.
I eventually got it escalated at D & G and had a replacement out, the whole time without fridge not operating at correct temperature was a little over 7 weeks, the freezer worked fine, but we couldn't keep fresh things like milk, cheese, yoghurts etc.
I have vowed that apart from my central heating all extended warranties are now out the window at renewal date, and the monthly money is being saved up.

Norfolk_Jim

I never buy extended warranties (except one for a very costly TV long ago and that turned out to be worth it when it went wrong after 3 years but otherwise...) as they are in the main part terrible value. I buy electrical items with my Nationwide CC which gives me an extra years warranty on top of the manufacturers warranty - If after 2 years its still working I find it tends to carry on working for many years - in fact, so far, all my old machines are still humming happily away and all my breakdowns have been in those first couple of years.